Best new car research website! (How NOT to ask/take advice)

[Argue]

A few opinions of mine regarding the site.

The Website

1. Remove the big wall of text. Less is more. Use better copy and get to the point.

2. Change the logo. I think it's good looking but the question mark doesn't make sense with your theme. Buyers are looking for the exact car. So they already know what to find.

3. Your website is about finding the exact car you want. I recommend changing the name.

The Name

1. Whichride4you is too long and a mouthful. I understand you like the name and think it's brilliant but it comes off as spammy. Buyers who sees this name through email campaigns won't open the email, in my opinion.

2. The theme of the site is finding the complete car. So use a better name. Here are some examples:

• totalwheels.com
• truewheels.com
• totalvehicle.com

These names sound bland but try to focus on the theme of your site. Buyers are looking for a seamless experience. Offer that to the buyer -offering flawless results.

The Website (Pt. 2)

1. I made a quick mock up of what the mobile version of the site could look like.

2. The site title should have an appealing font with eye catching colors.

3. The USP could be something like choose your ideal car in seconds. This might be a pretty bad USP but get creative and succinct.

4. Where the orange bar button is, replace with "view directory."

5. Where you see the steps, use a 3 step instructional with great looking logo designs explaining to the user how to easily use the site.

6. After the steps, you could use a video to further enhance the site.

7. Add social media logos and maybe reviews.

The Features

1. I like the features aspect of the site and how it visually shows the details after the search.

2. However, fix the bugs and make it look more appealing and organized.

Note:
- These are just a few opinions of mine regarding where I think the site needs improvement.

- My suggestions makes the site simple, speedy, and user-friendly.

Important: determine who's your target market since there seems to be ambiguity here.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

you really don't care

He'd rather be right than rich.

It is apparent that most of you have no idea what constructive feedback is.

That's it.

You're done.

Yesterday I said I was DONE trying to help you. And now, everyone else is DONE helping you. You've besmirched multiple entrepreneurs here who have done 10,000X as much as you and succeeded 10,000X as much as you. And yet, they don't know what constructive criticism is?

Get f*cking lost.

This thread will remain open for anyone else to comment and your links siphoning traffic from here will be removed.

 

[MidwestLandlord]

The only thing I can suggest is to watch the tutorial. Also, to find the R8, just select Audi, then R8, then show vehicles.

Have you watched the tutorial?

STOP trying to sell us your service, and START listening to the feedback.

Otherwise, go somewhere else to spam.

Seriously, a business, and business owner, that can not ADAPT to what the market tells them is DOOMED to FAIL.

With your attitude, you are going to fail with this. How do I know? Because you already have.

 

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[YoungBroward]

Not the best way to introduce yourself

 

[MJ DeMarco]

The only feedback he liked was the donation button moved to the bottom of the website.

There shouldn't be a donation button unless he does personal branding on it, links a story and his picture to it, and says he's doing it "for fun". Asking for donations is tacky, unless you're just writing a blog or providing free scripts, plugins, etc.

It's too bad my next book is already written ... I would have dropped this thread in as a case study for multiple things; bullheadedness, stubbornness, askholing, confirmation biases, man, I could go on and on...

 

[Scot]

How the hell did I miss this thread?!

I just read this and it was like watching a bus full of nuns slowly crash into a bus full of puppies.

Wow.

 

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[lowtek]

Market research is important when you are spending thousands of dollars and/or quitting your day job. I am doing neither. Also, MJ didn't do market research. He saw a niche and exploited it. I know what the need is. But thanks.

That's some sidewalker mentality right there.

You're still spending the most precious capital you have - your time. You can always beg, borrow, steal, or earn more money - but you're not getting another second on this earth. People who understand opportunity cost will gladly spend a reasonable sum of money / time conducting market research to avoid wasting a year of their life down a rabbit hole with no payoff at the end.

Your continued rejection of the very pointed and constructive feedback here doesn't bode well for your venture. Many of us are car guys, and we're telling you that the site doesn't do much for us. You may not like what we have to say, and granted the folks here don't use a velvet glove, but the feedback is on point and genuine.

Comparisons of your business to other successful businesses that were built 15 - 20 years ago is not a sufficient justification for your course of action. Even if MJ didn't do market research during the birth of the internet age, even if Craigslist looks like it fell into a coma in 1999, those facts don't justify some of the decisions you made in this venture.

It's entirely possible what we're experiencing here is a statistical anomaly and all of us are outliers in the distribution. But, unless you're getting rave reviews at the other places you've posted links to your site, you should really consider the advice given here in earnest.

Please understand - none of this is personal. We all root for each other, but if we turn this into one big circle jerk of yes people then the community will cease to have value.

 

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[biophase]

The video was worth the price of admission. No more than a 30 secs in he is on his "About" page. "This is the most important page, DONATE!!! DONATE!!! DONATE!!!". I literally spewed my drink everywhere.

OMG I just watched his tutorial. That does make this thread even more hilarious. Most important page is the ABOUT page, then the warranty, then at 2 minutes in it goes to the search page, then 10 minutes of using the search page.

But at least the tutorial shows us how to use a contact us page.

Talk about someone having no clue.

 

[V8Bill]

The OP's unfortunate attitude aside, I got some great feedback for building websites and UI errors to avoid. I'm also a huge UI fan so to read constructive feedback like that about the importance of UI was cool. I nodded. That post above by @Argue was like a flower in a war zone. Took me completely by surprise and was good to see. In amongst the kefuffle he stepped up to go above and beyond the call. To think that a member would take the time to create a mock up suggestion for free and without being asked, in their own time, was a total surprise (although maybe it shouldn't have been).

I was also pleasantly surprised to see how much people continued to try to help even after the OP proved to be a prickly (or at best benign) receiver of said advice - many of you persisted. That was admirable and I commend all the members who really tried to help. Even after sharing their disdain of the OP some then proceeded to offer lengthy and detailed advice and feedback. That was great to see.

Surprisingly, I got a lot from this thread. Trying is one thing (and he was given kudos for that several times) but when people step up to help (constructively and with good heart) you have to let them. I know that if anyone stepped up to try to help me as much as you guys did this guy I'd be extremely grateful. Quite a few posters in this tread have gone up a notch in my book.

 

[lowtek]

Word of mouth is the best advertising. Most people don't click on random websites, regardless of the name.

The $30,000 in monthly ad spend I manage for AdWords says otherwise.

 

[G-Man]

I believe you are the author right?

grabbing popcorn now.

 

[ddzc]

First of all, show me. Second of all, can cargurus also let you select cars that are less than 4000 pounds, less than 200 inches in length, under 55 inches in height, have only six cylinders, are turbo, and are less than 13 pounds per horsepower?

99.5% of people don't really car about the length of the car, weight, height, etc. As for horsepower, turbos, superchargers, some guys will look in to these specs and 99.5% of females wont. Your demographic is now extremely small. How do you expect to become big? Or is this a little side hobby?

I just bought a car and was looking at new and a couple years old, so I've just been through this process. I already knew what cars I loved and just checked the dealerships websites for all the data I needed, and then went over to the dealership to test drive them and crunch numbers. Your site wouldn't save me any time at all throughout this process.

I do have a great idea though for people looking for used cars. I hope you steal it and become huge, or someone else does. For many months, I was always looking for the right deal. I had 4-5 model cars I wanted, I knew the color I wanted, I knew I wanted stick, I knew I wanted something with under 50K and I knew the exactly market price for it, but was looking for a deal, a few K off. I was in no rush, and every day I looked and looked, until months went by and I found the deal. The guy had 25 people message him, but I was the first and I got the car.

The issue with the above scenario was my time wasted every single day checking for a new listing. I tried to automate it on kijiji (similar to ebay marketplace in US) but the automation tool is a complete joke and never worked. Autotrader had this feature to notify me of new postings which fall in to my criteria but it was very very buggy and only worked 20-30% of the time, resulting in lost deals. I had no choice but to manually search every site, every day, multiple times per day.

If you can come up with a tool which properly notifies me via email, text or the app on any new postings across all platforms (kijiji, craigslist, trader) which match my criteria, this is the winner. This is an actual need, it saves me time and hassle and provides extreme value for the daily car shopper or hustler/flipper. When you save someone time and provide value, those are the key ingredients to success with such a website/tool.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

The haters are just jumping on here and giving their .02 without actually looking at the product

But I have looked at the product. Because you don't like the feedback, it's hogwash? Because some says its impressive, then it's valid?

You are letting your confirmation bias run wild.

 

[Fox]

Have you watched the tutorial?

 

[The-J]

This thread was F*cking hilarious lmao.

"Have you watched the tutorial?" is going down as one of my favorite lines in FLF history.

@MJ DeMarco just encapsulated it all. He'd rather be right than rich.

How do you F*ck up THIS bad? If he went to a conference or trade show acting this way, he'd never be invited back again.

He even read the book! F*cking sad. If he thinks THIS is bad, wait till he gets his ego F*cked from all directions by actually LAUNCHING the damn thing.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

The only ones that are guaranteed to not fail are the ones that don't try.

Absolutely, whether you succeed or fail at this, you've won anyway by learning, taking action, and engaging the marketplace. To be honest, that's a lot more than most people will do after they read my book.

 

[jon.a]

It's too bad such is the case. I would think you would like for your readers to find out about such a great new tool they can use that would save them a lot of time that is completely free to use, that was inspired to be created by someone that read The Millionaire Fastlane . Such is the world.

In any event it was an amazingly awkward first post.
I think that you were just dropping a high value link to a low value site.
Now I think that you should go grace us with your introduction post.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Comparisons of your business to other successful businesses that were built 15 - 20 years ago is not a sufficient justification for your course of action.

Hallelujah!

I do have a great idea though for people looking for used cars. I hope you steal it and become huge, or someone else does. For many months, I was always looking for the right deal. I had 4-5 model cars I wanted, I knew the color I wanted, I knew I wanted stick, I knew I wanted something with under 50K and I knew the exactly market price for it, but was looking for a deal, a few K off. I was in no rush, and every day I looked and looked, until months went by and I found the deal. The guy had 25 people message him, but I was the first and I got the car.

The issue with the above scenario was my time wasted every single day checking for a new listing. I tried to automate it on kijiji (similar to ebay marketplace in US) but the automation tool is a complete joke and never worked. Autotrader had this feature to notify me of new postings which fall in to my criteria but it was very very buggy and only worked 20-30% of the time, resulting in lost deals. I had no choice but to manually search every site, every day, multiple times per day.

If you can come up with a tool which properly notifies me via email, text or the app on any new postings across all platforms (kijiji, craigslist, trader) which match my criteria, this is the winner. This is an actual need, it saves me time and hassle and provides extreme value for the daily car shopper or hustler/flipper. When you save someone time and provide value, those are the key ingredients to success with such a website/tool.

Great example of finding a need and offering a solution. And it's here for the taking.

We all root for each other, but if we turn this into one big circle jerk of yes people then the community will cease to have value.

I don't think he understands this and that we are all "haters" -- there is nothing better for the forum than having someone come here and wildly succeed. It's great for the community so our vested interest in this thread is not to pile on, hate, and be critical. We want to build success stories.

IMO, I don't think the need exists here. (Again, my opinion and 10 others here doesn't constitute a market, but it gets close.) @ddzc 's idea? Now that I seems interesting.

 

[QDF]

I think you missed one of the most constructive comments in this thread.

The average person looking for a car won't have the patience to figure out your website as it is right now, especially considering the bugs people have mentioned.

BUT....you said your ideal customers who will take the time to figure it out are car enthusiasts. Let's assume this is true.

In this case, your best move right now is to go to a forum full of car enthusiasts and ask for advice on features AND create a poll on that forum to see if those users would use your website based on the idea alone.

Fun story....a while ago I had an idea for an app/site I thought was genius and the numbers worked out. I went directly to a forum of people in this market and talked to them as well as polled them. I got almost 100 votes on the poll...maybe 2 or 3 said they'd use it. I killed the idea. It still could have worked...maybe. But the odds were extremely slim, and I'm not going to be in the business of forcing an unwanted or unneeded solution.

You came here because you wanted actionable feedback. By all means fix the bugs in your site, and redesign it to be simpler, etc. But communicate with your actual customer base and poll them. If you don't do this, it's likely because you're afraid they'll reject your idea - trust me, this is a good thing if this happens. Either way, you're informed.

If you poll them, you can actually use basic statistics to accurately calculate the views of the entire population of car enthusiasts based off of your poll results alone.

I'm just afraid you'd ignore their feedback too if they told you they wouldn't use it.

 

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[The-J]

You sound like a bit of a dickhead. I don't know what you're trying to prove. I'm almost certain that I wouldn't like you in real life. But you're giving it an honest effort and that's respectable.

I'm not a car guy. I don't know jack shit about cars. I can't even drive a manual. But I do know websites.

I like the design of the site as it stands today. I don't know what it looked like yesterday. But on desktop, it's alright. I like the colors.

The mobile view, I don't see much of anything. No CTA above the fold, which is problematic if you want to get people to do something.

I used the search function and it looks like your data is pretty limited. I can't tell if you're pulling up exact models for cars that exist today and are on the market, or if you're just giving the information. If it's the former, there's no links to the person/dealer I can call in order to talk further about it. If it's the latter, there's simply not enough information on enough models.

What's nice about this is that I can look up a car and find the EXACT specs, all on one page. I like that. I'm not a car guy and I only have cursory knowledge of what the specs mean. But I can find them if I want to know them for whatever reason.

What's not so nice is that... there's nowhere to go from here. I've found my information so what am I gonna do now, just peace?

With any website, the 1st fundamental question to ask is "Why are people here?" The 2nd is "Are they getting what they want?" To answer question #1, you wanna get people to the site, see where they're coming from, and see what information they were given before arriving. Not us, mind you: I went to the site to see how bad it really is, seeing all these comments. I don't think it's bad, it's just flawed.

To answer question #2, you wanna see what actions people are taking on the site. Are they leaving from the front page/landing page? Then they're not getting what they want. Are they searching for information then leaving? They might be getting what they want. Let's say you toss a button to link to the dealership. Are they clicking on that link? If so, they might be getting what they want (info on a place to see who is selling the car in question).

"The purpose of this website is to give people a starting point for finding a vehicle." Who is 'people'? You seem to want to go after the car enthusiasts. One thing about car enthusiasts that I've noticed is that they love to talk specs. Your site could help settle some arguments, especially ones concerning "Which one has the higher HP" and stuff. I don't know where the money is in that, though.

As it stands now: people visiting the site in order to get info on where to buy a car of a certain model will NOT get what they want. People visiting the site to get info about the specifications of a car might get what they want... if they are able to find the car info on your site in the first place.

The real flaw is the business model, that is, there is none. Even pre-revenue companies with millions of $ in VC funding and hundreds of thousands of visitors per week have a business model in mind: they're just building an audience and assessing needs. What kind of audience would you build, small or big? Would you be able to give them what they want?

tl;dr i don't really see a need but i'm probably not your target market anyway

 

[Raoul Duke]

This thread was F*cking hilarious lmao.

"Have you watched the tutorial?" is going down as one of my favorite lines in FLF history.

@MJ DeMarco just encapsulated it all. He'd rather be right than rich.

How do you F*ck up THIS bad? If he went to a conference or trade show acting this way, he'd never be invited back again.

He even read the book! F*cking sad. If he thinks THIS is bad, wait till he gets his ego F*cked from all directions by actually LAUNCHING the damn thing.

The video was worth the price of admission. No more than a 30 secs in he is on his "About" page. "This is the most important page, DONATE!!! DONATE!!! DONATE!!!". I literally spewed my drink everywhere.


Here is the video. lol

 

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[Ecom man]

This thread was F*cking hilarious lmao.

"Have you watched the tutorial?" is going down as one of my favorite lines in FLF history.

@MJ DeMarco just encapsulated it all. He'd rather be right than rich.

How do you F*ck up THIS bad? If he went to a conference or trade show acting this way, he'd never be invited back again.

He even read the book! F*cking sad. If he thinks THIS is bad, wait till he gets his ego F*cked from all directions by actually LAUNCHING the damn thing.

Funny thing... I just got back from a trade show and I had two venders that literally wouldn't tell me how to buy items from them! They had products I wanted to carry on my websites. They had prices that left me reasonable margins. The one vender literally wouldn't tell me how to buy his products. I straight up asked him "if I want to order x amount of product xyz how do I do that?" He wouldn't tell me! The other vender was even worse and got mad at me that I knew what MAP pricing was. I finally I just chucked his business card back on his table told him I would buy from his competitors and walked away.

MJ is right some people would rather be right than rich.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

My memory sucks, but I'm trying to remember a time when I was 20 years old and struggling as an entrepreneur...

I CANNOT remember the "when and where" I had the opportunity to not only consult with successful entrepreneurs, millionaires, and people living a dream -- but I also CANNOT remember the time where I had the opportunity to shit on their advice and call it "not constructive" simply because my ego was bruised.

He'd rather be right than rich.

In this case, he is right, and everyone, including the market itself, is wrong.

Talk about someone having no clue.

Why would someone watch a 12 minute video to do something that takes 3 seconds at Google?

"Oh, but this website does more than Google, watch the video"

This is a case of someone having such a self-indulgent focus that they cannot see the forest through the trees.

Curious, does ANYONE watch a 12 minute tutorial explaining how to use a search function on a website? Is this what he does when visiting a random website? Hmm... let me spend 12 minutes and figure how to use this thing...

Free is NOT free when it eats up 12 minutes of your time.

12 minute tutorials are for complicated applications, like SM dashboards, project management SAAS stuff, and various other B2B tools designed to increase productivity/profitability.

People will love this website because I built it and because I say it's valuable.

No one is going to watch a 12 min tutorial over something that generally is perceived as Google-able. And in order to discover that perhaps the website might help you beyond google, you have to spend 12 minutes finding out.

Ain't happening.

 

[Vigilante]

He's lucky MJ got here before I did.

 

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[EvanOkanagan]

Word of mouth is the best advertising.

How's that working out for you?

 

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[MidwestLandlord]

 

[Fox]

Seems to be a lot of these threads lately @MJ DeMarco - maybe like a "shark tank" section of the forum where people can critique things?
Does that already exist but people don't use it?

 

[Michael Burgess]

Pivot, and build a platform that allows people to search for used cars online with greater detail and ease.

Four users have now made it clear they think the idea of a used car filtering system that catches information from other sites (Kijiji, craigslist, autotrader, etc) would be worthwhile. I'd say either pivot to work on this, work on this in addition to your current site, or have somebody else take it entirely.

Market Evidence:
1)

If you could build a site or app that lets me add your search variables / filters to USED cars that are posted on craigslist and Kijiji, that would be a really useful idea. Just my thought.

2)

@ddzc 's idea? Now that I seems interesting.

3)

Screw this guy, what languages would I have to learn to do this?
@Fox

4)

I do have a great idea though for people looking for used cars. I hope you steal it and become huge, or someone else does..... my time wasted every single day checking for a new listing.... the automation tool is a complete joke and never worked... resulting in lost deals... When you save someone time and provide value, those are the key ingredients to success with such a website/tool.

^^^ Hope I didn't butcher your quote too badly, but there's a great idea that solves real pain points and is totally tangible.

I'd personally use a service right now that did exactly this. Don't continue to let me manually search for a 2005-2007 Ford F350 with the 6.0L diesel engine, crew cab long box dually with King Ranch interior under 200,000KM with no CEL (in white only, please).

Somebody build this system. You'd find a way to monetize it and literally make millions if you did it right.

 

[biophase]

The only thing I can suggest is to watch the tutorial. Also, to find the R8, just select Audi, then R8, then show vehicles.

Also, it's good to know some people like the simplistic layout. Thanks.

Seriously? Lol. I'm supposed to watch a tutorial before I use a website?

I wonder where the Craigslist tutorial video is? Please show me a link to it and then I'll watch your video.

Well F*ck if I wanted to just search for an R8 I wouldn't come here. The purpose of your site is that if I put in specs matching an R8 it should show up in the results right? Well it did not.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

That's not very constructive. Others have just said they see no use for it. That also is not very constructive.

Are you FN kidding me? This thread is 4 pages long and you see little constructive advice? I don't see a NEED is about as constructive as you get. You can't turn a turd into a diamond. And yet, you've contributed NOTHING to any other thread.

Sorry my friend but you're testing my/our patience.